I woke to the low, constant murmur of the surf, of waves breaking upon a none-too-distant shore; and as the light came, I could see the welter of white water off the golf course, a sure sign that a low tide was breaking along a sand bar running parallel to the shore. And on checking the tide table I found I was right: a 0.73m low tide was forecast for 08:31 this morning, the picture being taken at 07:11.
The ceaseless roar of the surf is a background to so many of my memories of Mombasa, be it at the....
....Hoey house at Nyali where we could sit on the veranda and look out across the lawn and through the high palms to a lagoon protected by a coral reef a mile out, a reef pounded by the long swells of the Indian Ocean or....
....be it at the big house at the end of Cliff Avenue which had a view out across the Kilindini channel to no less than three reefs, all white-teethed by the ocean's great breakers.
The memories of those four summer holidays in Mombasa between 1957 and 1961 are some of the most treasured of my life. One cannot go back to those moments but one can recall them, enjoy them, celebrate and be deeply thankful for them.
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